This game is just the generic old school Rare formula, minus all of Rare's charm, minus Rare's level design skills, and minus Rare's polish. The last one is forgivable. Rare was one of the giants, working with a corresponding budget. But when the characters and worldbuilding just seem like they took the crudest elements of Conker and pushed it into only those elements, there's not much to look forward to there. And then you have the issue of the platforming, which just feels like it exists. Nothing special. No real inspiration there. Everything seems overly simplified and a bit too clunky. Now you could chalk those complaints up to being a demo and that the full game should introduce challenge and more development to the world and its inhabitants. But a demo is supposed to inspire you to buy the game afterward. If you're not going to do the default and just stuff the first level in a limited version of the game and call it a demo, you need to bring out some variety, showcase some of the later game, do something to make players want to see what the game has in store for them. Unfortunately, this isn't that. I'd give it another half star or so if I could, but it certainly isn't worth a full 2.
Since the standard edition page has a bizarrely high score by what either appears to be early reviews or people that gush about everything, I'll stick an honest one here to keep this score where it should be. The combat system is solid, the world is pretty, the sound work is great, and the humor is pretty good. Okay, now that's out of the way and you've played for a couple of hours. You're bored. It's the same combat over and over, the world lacks depth, and the humor only exists within those populated areas that are few and far between. It just sort of misses the mark at tying what it does well into a cohesive game experience. There's a weapon customization system, which is rather pointless. By the time I ever had the ability to achieve a worthwhile upgrade, a weapon with better base stats than my upgraded weapon was already sitting in my inventory. There are companions with quests and storylines. All of them fall pretty flat. I didn't care about any of them. There's no Veronica, no Boone, no Cass. You get Parvati and the somewhat ham-handed bit of "representation" stuffed in here. It's not bad, but it's hardly compelling. The storyline does have multiple paths, but I ran a "let's see what happens" run and a "how dumb can I make you" run and neither offered anything worth pursuing long term. If you want more Fallout, go play more Fallout. If you want space Fallout... I guess go play Mothership Zeta again? This is not what it aspired to, and it's not exactly good even when approaching it without the Fallout comparisons (I didn't really expect Fallout going in, but it sort of smacks you in the face with the parallels that don't measure up). Okay game, but not worth the asking price by any stretch. If you want to support Obsidian's efforts, I guess it's thoroughly playable, but I certainly hope this is a stepping stone to greatness and not the pinnacle of their efforts.
